Costa Rica's strong democratic institutions have nurtured a vibrant press,
and President Miguel Angel Rodríguez has generally supported the media.
Yet punitive press laws have sometimes inhibited the full exercise of press
freedom.

Costa Rica took a major step toward the elimination of the most onerous statues
in 1998, when President Rodríguez proposed in an October speech that
libel legislation be modified to conform to international standards. If the
proposed changes are approved by the Costa Rican legislature, reporters could
only be prosecuted for libel if they acted with malice by publishing statements
that they knew, or should have known, were false (this is the malice standard
first articulated in the U.S. Supreme Court in The New York Times
Co. v. Sullivan). Under current standards, the burden of proof is on
the reporter to demonstrate that published information is true.

Rodríguez, who took office in May, has also proposed abolishing a
law holding newspaper editors legally responsible for all defamatory articles.
Congress is expected to pass the new legislation in early 1999.

In other positive developments, the Constitutional Court overturned legislation
that prohibited the media from publishing poll results on the day of an election;
the court also sent another proposed law, which would make it more difficult
for reporters to gain access to financial data, back to the legislature because
of procedural errors in the way the law was drafted.

Despite the advances, serious problems remain. Defamation is a criminal rather
than a civil offense in Costa Rica. In addition, under the "Right to Reply,"
individuals who feel they have been treated unfairly can legally compel a
media outlet to grant them equal space or time for rebuttal. Finally, legislators
can force journalists to testify about articles, as occurred in June when
the Legislative Assembly ordered editors from the daily La Nación
to appear to answer questions about a story linking Colombia's Cali drug
cartel to Costa Rican business and politicians. One of the legislators who
participated in the questioning was mentioned in the story.